Graham Brown

University of Victoria | UVIC · Peter B. Gustavson School of Business

In response to the lesser known role of individuals in producing desirable or undesirable effects of physical workspace, this symposium presents research on the less explored facets of workspace design by examining how space is experienced, interpreted, and enacted by employees in their work. Our five studies assess the role of human agency in purp...

Despite the inherent need to own and widespread prevalence of owning and claiming in organizations, very little is known about the impact of psychological ownership and territoriality. Using a field survey across several organizations, we find that feelings of ownership and territorial behavior are directly related to positive feelings towards the...

Territorial marking allows people to communicate that a territory has been claimed. Across 2 studies, we examine the impact of territorial marking of one's ideas on others' invited creativity when asked to provide feedback. Integrating research on territoriality and self-construal, we examine the effect of control-oriented marking on invited creati...

Psychological ownership is increasingly recognized as a core feeling in the experience of work. Within jobs and the work context, there is a wide range of opportunities to experience psychological ownership. Yet empirical work on how feelings of ownership develop is lacking, and thus ways to develop psychological ownership in the workplace are not...

In this field study, we develop and test a theory regarding the role of trust in the work environment as a critical condition that determines the relationship between psychological ownership, territoriality, and being perceived as a team contributor. We argue that, dependent upon the context of trust in the work environment, psychological ownership...

Although location is considered to play an important role in negotiation potentially favoring one side over the other, little research has examined whether negotiating on one's home field indeed confers an advantage to the resident party. We tested this possibility by experimentally manipulating participants' occupancy status (resident versus neutr...

Territoriality represents a new area of research in organizations. In this study, we empirically examined how territorial infringement leads to anger and reactionary defenses. Using a cognitive appraisal theory of anger, we posited that a perceived infringement evokes anger that, in turn, fuels reactionary defenses. We tested our hypotheses by usin...

Organizations create policies in an effort to reduce injustice, as well as address the needs and interests of organizational members. We argue that individuals can make fairness judgments related to organizational policies, which are independent from other dimensions of fairness (i.e. distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justi...

Territoriality is an emerging concept of importance in organizations. Unfortunately, there does not exist currently a valid measure of territoriality with which to conduct research on territoriality in organizations. I developed a theoretically driven four-factor measure of territoriality. Six hundred and sixty-three people working in office settin...

This chapter discusses why employees keep their knowledge to themselves. Despite managers’ best efforts, many employees tend to hoard knowledge or are reluctant to share their expertise with coworkers or managers. Although many firms have introduced specialized initiatives to encourage a broader dissemination of ideas and knowledge among organizati...

This chapter discusses why employees keep their knowledge to themselves. Despite managers' best efforts, many employees tend to hoard knowledge or are reluctant to share their expertise with coworkers or managers. Although many firms have introduced specialized initiatives to encourage a broader dissemination of ideas and knowledge among organizati...

Alex was the team leader in charge of developing a new program for WARE Inc. He had worked numerous months with his team of software engineers to develop this new program. Although he knew it was common for programs to be cancelled, he was still upset to learn that the company had decided that the product he developed was not viable. Fortunately, t...

Territorial feelings and behaviors are important, pervasive, and yet largely overlooked aspects of organizational life. Organizational members can and do become territorial over physical spaces, ideas, roles, relationships, and other potential possessions in organizations. We examine how territorial behaviors are used to construct, communicate, mai...

Neighborhood revitalization efforts include building new subdivisions in declining neighborhoods, but few studies have asked the incoming residents about the success of such new housing efforts. We examined neighborhood confidence and place attachment among residents of such a new housing subdivision (n = 56) and compared them to newcomers (n = 99)...

Neighborhood revitalization efforts include building new subdivisions in declining neighborhoods, but few studies have asked the incoming residents about the success of such new housing efforts. We examined neighborhood confidence and place attachment among residents of such a new housing subdivision (n = 56) and compared them to newcomers (n = 99)...

The popular incivilities hypothesis suggests physical incivilities, such as unkempt lawns and litter, and weak social ties with neighbors encourage crime. Despite a strong impact on policing policies and public awareness, this hypothesis has seldom been tested. We extend this basic model to test whether place attachments protect from crime as well....

The article discusses a study that aims to prove that organizational policies can create a context in which other forms of justice are evaluated by looking at how the fairness of organizational policies are related to factors such as turnover, citizenship behavior and job satisfaction, as well as how organizational policies can interact with other...

Concepts deriving from criminology, housing policy, and environmental psychology are integrated to test two ways that housing conditions could relate to crime in a declining first-ring suburb of Salt Lake City. For existing housing, we use a model to test whether housing incivilities, such as litter and unkempt lawns, are associated with later crim...

Place attachments are positive bonds to physical and social settings that support identity and provide other psychological benefits. However, place attachments have been neglected as a potential strength in declining suburban neighborhoods. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses are used to examine attachment to the home and attachment to the block/...

ABSTRACT Institutional and ecological theories of organizations are consistently being seen as complementary,rather than opposing perspectives. Both theories support the viewpoint that change is often detrimental to organizations. However, within institutional theory a lack of change can also be seen as a liability. To the extent that organizations...

Evidence suggests that architects as a group cannot predict the public's aesthetic evaluations of architecture. In this study, practicing architects predicted laypersons' responses to large contemporary building, and again these predictions were poorly correlated with ratings by laypersons, although some architects' predictions were better than oth...

Discussions of how to revitalize neighborhoods often focus on how to clean out incivilities, such as graffiti and boarded buildings. Our research takes a balanced look at both neighborhood strengths and weaknesses and uses them to predict crime and fear of crime in a relatively low income neighborhood in Salt Lake City. A potential strength of the...

Pain pervades the workplace in many forms. Events that occur in people's lives in and outside of work affect how they feel and how they perform their job. Difficult situations disturb people's emotional states. In addition to this, many people are exposed to toxic situations at work. The cause can come from many different sources, some intended and...